The Speedhub 500/14 is Rohloff's flagship product. It is a 14 speed planetary geared hub that is suitable for many cycling applications. It's gearing range is the same as that of a 27-speed mountain bike drivetrain, a 526% increase in gear ratio between the lowest and highest gear. Some of the outstanding features of the Speedhub are listed below:

• 14 unique gears that cover the same range as a 29 speed derailleur drivetrain.
• Operates with a single grip type twist shifter.
• Simplifies the geared bicycle drivetrain to that of a single speed.
• All gearing is sealed inside the hubshell in a lubricant bath.
• Virtually maintenance free, no shifting adjustments required.
• Shift while pedaling forward, backward or standing still!
• Disc brake compatible.
• No more torn off derailleurs!
• Available in black anodized, red powdercoat, or polished aluminum.
  

The Speedhub eliminates the redundant and unused gears of a 27 speed drivetrain, the rider is left with 14 usable gears with a nearly constant change of gear ratio (13%-14%) between each gear. All of the gearing is sealed inside the hubshell in an oil lubricant bath where it is safe from contamination. This provides a single driveline between chainring and hub cog so you always have a perfect chainline.

The Speedhub is virtually maintenance free. An annual oil change is the only required maintenance for the hub. The shifting will never need adjusting because the shift indexing mechanism resides inside the hub, not at the shifter. Though you can change the feel of the shifting by adjusting the cable tension.

If your hub does ever need maintenance or you would like us to carry out a service for you, Chris can now do this in NZ having completed the hub servicing training at Rohloff in Germany.

The entire hub is manufactured in Germany where it is held to the tightest tolerances. This makes the Speedhub the most mechanically efficient planetary geared hub available. The mechanical efficiency of the Speedhub rivals that of a clean, well-lubricated derailleur drivetrain. When conditions become severe a traditional drivetrain loses quite a bit of efficiency while the Speedhub with its sealed transmission loses considerably less. Only the single driveline chain that is exposed contributes to the increased efficiency loss.

The Speedhub is retro-fittable to any bicycle, recumbent, trike, tandem, etc. It is suitable for downhill, cross country, trekking, etc. It is also compatible with all popular disc brakes, a special rotor is required. Different variations of the Speedhub exist for different applications, depending on if your frame has, horizontal, vertical, or specially designed dropouts to accommodate the Speedhub torque arm. To help you determine which model of Speedhub required for your application please contact us.

To help us recommend the best hub for your bike please provide us with the following: Bike this is to be installed on, whether you would like a disc hub or non disc hub and what sort of torque arm you would prefer.

Torque arms are available to mount along the chain stay or to a IS disc brake mount or to a Custom Rohloff drop out.

The Speedhub twist shifter.

Quick release axle with internal shifter and torque arm (OEM1 axle plate)

Quick release axle with external shifter, disc version and Rohloff OEM2 axle plate

Bolt on Axle with external shifter and OEM1 axle plate to work with torque arm

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GEAR RANGE COMPARISION

The right gear system plays a very important role in making bike riding fun. The difference between the largest and the smallest gears (range of gears) and the size of the increases between them play a large part in deciding which riding situation the gear system has been taylored to (e.g. High speed racing). The size of the increases between gears will decide how smoothly the flow is from gear to gear. Tuning the range of gears, the number of gears and the increases between each of these gears will eventually define the riding fun. The shifting between gears in all riding situations (including whilst stationary) must then be made as light and intuitive as possible in order to maximise the riding fun.

If the range of gears lies over 500% and the increase between these gears lies under 15% but remains evenly spaced out, then the rider has the ability to change gears at the precise moment when needed, regardless of the current riding conditions and without changing the comfortable crank rotation speed. This is only possible with the high performance hub Rohloff SPEEDHUB 500/14.

The diagram below shows a comparison between a 27-speed derailleur gear system and the Rohloff SPEEDHUB 500/14. There is no difference between the range of gears and the range of effective gears. Next to this is the optimum, evenly increased speeds of the Rohloff SPEEDHUB 500/14. Impossible for the derailleur gear system is the shifting speed and the possibility of shifting through all gears with just one shifter whilst stationary or whilst pedaling. Just like the derailleur system, the range of gears can be taylored to the riders individual wishes whether that be for a faster or a slower riding style.

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Internal shifter cable routing.

External shifter cable routing (EX).

The External Cable Routing can be ordered as an upgrade for other hubs by simply adding the EX designation to the hub model name. Some applications may not allow the use of Internal Cable Routing because it requires a cantilever brake boss to exist no closer than 240 mm from the rear axle. The EX shifter box can be oriented in 12 different 30º increments about the axle. It may also be flipped in the opposite direction providing a total of 24 different mounting positions to satisfy your cable routing needs. Both cable routings are capable of quick release for easy wheel removal and installation.

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